Blackheath by Gabriella Lepore
Published 20th December 2015 by Oftomes Publishing
Goodreads Challenge - 80/50
Star Rating - **
I received a copy of this book from the publisher Oftomes Publishing in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis (from Goodreads)
Seventeen-year-old
Maggie Ellmes is dogged by a case of chronic bad luck. She figures
that’s just her lot in life—that is, until the psychic at Blackheath’s
annual carnival reveals that Maggie’s problems are caused by more than
just ordinary misfortune; she’s actually been cursed.
Desperate to shake the hex, Maggie has no choice but to seek out the help of Joel Tomlins, a rebellious classmate who’s descended from Blackheath’s most powerful line of witches. After breaking all of his coven’s conventions to help her, Joel discovers that the curse isn’t as bad as Maggie fears. In fact, it’s much, much worse.
Desperate to shake the hex, Maggie has no choice but to seek out the help of Joel Tomlins, a rebellious classmate who’s descended from Blackheath’s most powerful line of witches. After breaking all of his coven’s conventions to help her, Joel discovers that the curse isn’t as bad as Maggie fears. In fact, it’s much, much worse.
My Thoughts
This
is the story of Maggie Ellmes, who suffers from a chronic case of bad
luck, and Joel Tomlins, who's a member of Blackheath's resident witch
family. Maggie and Joel attend the same school and spend most of the
time trying to avoid each other. After attending Blackheath's carnival
Maggie finds out that there may be more to her bad luck than first meets
the eye. It turns out shes actually cursed. Maggie decides to seek out
Joel's help and reluctantly they begin to work together to try and come
to the bottom of this curse. As the pair delve deeper into Maggie's
problem it seems that things are worse then they fist feared.
This is the second Gabriella Lepore book that I've read and unfortunately, in my opinion, it's the weaker of the two. That being said, I did enjoy some aspects of the story and I was happy to finish it. The plot was quite interesting but on the other hand quite simply written. I liked the idea of the curse and I do enjoy stories about witches but the depth wasn't there. I felt the world building was lacking, carnivals and circuses are one of my favorite settings so I would of liked some more exploration of this. I also would of liked some more exploration of the witchy powers in this book. The story felt quite Twilightesque and, although I liked Twilight when I read it, it's not something that appeals to my reading tastes now. It was also quite a romance heavy story and again, although I don't mind a bit of romance, it's not my favorite thing. I prefer world building, action and adventure.
My biggest bug bare with this book though was Maggie as a character. I really did not like her. She was self centered, stroppy and demanding and genuinely quite mean to the people who were trying to help her. She's meant to be a teenager but she strops around and actually stamps her foot when shes not getting her own way, like a child. I get that she was upset, with the curse and everything, but there wasn't any need for her to be that horrible. I did quite like Joel as a character however, I found him quite dark and brooding. I would of liked a bit more character development on his part, I'd love to see inside his head and watch his powers evolve.
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping too. The premise held so much promise and I didn't feel like it was developed to it's full potential. I didn't dislike it enough to DNF it and I was happy to continue to the end but it isn't my favorite read. This book does have a sequel and throughout the story I was convinced I wasn't going to pick it up however, the final line really intrigued me so I may consider picking up the sequel if I can find it for a reasonable price.
This is the second Gabriella Lepore book that I've read and unfortunately, in my opinion, it's the weaker of the two. That being said, I did enjoy some aspects of the story and I was happy to finish it. The plot was quite interesting but on the other hand quite simply written. I liked the idea of the curse and I do enjoy stories about witches but the depth wasn't there. I felt the world building was lacking, carnivals and circuses are one of my favorite settings so I would of liked some more exploration of this. I also would of liked some more exploration of the witchy powers in this book. The story felt quite Twilightesque and, although I liked Twilight when I read it, it's not something that appeals to my reading tastes now. It was also quite a romance heavy story and again, although I don't mind a bit of romance, it's not my favorite thing. I prefer world building, action and adventure.
My biggest bug bare with this book though was Maggie as a character. I really did not like her. She was self centered, stroppy and demanding and genuinely quite mean to the people who were trying to help her. She's meant to be a teenager but she strops around and actually stamps her foot when shes not getting her own way, like a child. I get that she was upset, with the curse and everything, but there wasn't any need for her to be that horrible. I did quite like Joel as a character however, I found him quite dark and brooding. I would of liked a bit more character development on his part, I'd love to see inside his head and watch his powers evolve.
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy this book as much as I was hoping too. The premise held so much promise and I didn't feel like it was developed to it's full potential. I didn't dislike it enough to DNF it and I was happy to continue to the end but it isn't my favorite read. This book does have a sequel and throughout the story I was convinced I wasn't going to pick it up however, the final line really intrigued me so I may consider picking up the sequel if I can find it for a reasonable price.
Overall Rating
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